Barack Obama, the Radical Left, and Memorial Day

Amy Proctor notes that Barack Obama, at his commencement address at Wesleyan University on Sunday, did not mention the military when making the call for public service:

CNN correspondents thought it “strange” that Barack Obama’s Memorial Day commencement speech at Wesleyan University didn’t mention the military. Obama, who replaced the ailing Ted Kennedy as commencement speaker, encouraged graduates to serve, but not in the military. CNN correspondent Bill Schneider took notice:

BLITZER: On this Memorial Day weekend, we’re remembering U.S. troops who have fallen in America’s various wars.

We’re also assessing right now what we just heard from Senator Barack Obama....

BLITZER: He graduated from Harvard Law School, was editor of the Law Review. He could have gone to a Wall Street firm and made a ton of money or some other law firm. But instead he decided to become an organizer in the South Side of Chicago. He tells that story.

SCHNEIDER: He does. And it’s a place he never lived and he devoted himself to community service and now to national service. There was something, however, strange with this speech that could I point out. He talked about how to serve your community and your country. He talked about rebuilding places like New Orleans, about fighting poverty, energy, education. All the ways in which these young people could serve. But on Memorial Day weekend, I didn’t see anyplace in his prepared remarks — he hasn’t finished speaking — he didn’t say anything about military service. I thought that was strange on Memorial Day weekend.

BLITZER: Yes, you would think that on this Memorial Day weekend he’d be referring to that.

SCHNEIDER: He made one reference to the military and it’s interesting. He said, “at a time of war,” this is in his prepared remarks. “At a time of war, we need you to work for peace.” As far as I can tell in the prepared remarks, that’s the closest he comes to mentioning anything military.

Here's the YouTube:

I noticed this problem in the New York Times article on Obama's speech:

Mr. Obama implored the 737 undergraduates and 100 graduate students to change the country and the world through service to others ... Mr. Obama urged them to help rebuild New Orleans, volunteer at a local soup kitchen or help end the situation in Darfur, and to remember that change will come, though not immediately.

“It’s because you have an obligation to yourself, because our individual salvation depends on our collective salvation,” Mr. Obama said. “Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.”

That "next great chapter" more likely includes joining the "Peace Corps" than the U.S. Army.

But Obama's spiel not only deliberately omits recognition of our service personnel, it deliberately disrespects them by turning them into victims caught in the maw of the adminstration's war machine.

As John at Powerline indicates, Obama not only offered an incorrect commemoration ("On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes - and I see many of them in the audience here..."), he portrayed our veterans as victims:

What was really offensive about Obama's New Mexico appearance ... was [his] tribute to America's war dead. He continued with a town hall-style question and answer period that cast veterans in the only role with which the Democrats are comfortable - victims - and sought to politicize the holiday.

As regular readers know, I often spend a couple of hours, every national holiday, making the rounds to the bloggers on my blog roll offering good wishes for a wonderful day.

Yesterday, I visited perhaps 40 or 50 conservative bloggers, and not one - not one right-wing blogger - had a bad word for the administration, the war, and especially the troops. Nope, click the links of just about any pro-victory blogs and you'll likely see a beautiful photograph of an American soldier saluting, or of the Stars and Stripes waving in full glory. You might find a wonderful commemorative poem, or some personal reflections on the loss of a loved one, a father or a husband who fought in one of America's great wars.

You do not find this on left wing blogs. I know we're not supposed to talk in generalities, but lefties use the Memorial Day holiday to excoriate the administration and to attack our troops. If they remember war at all, it's not this war, which is evil, it's earlier wars - the "good wars" like World War II - and even then these are mainly looked on as a time of sacrifice for the civilian homeland, not a when the nation beat back an existential threat to our survival.

There are too many to cite, but note TBogg, who exploited the death of Casey Sheehan - who re-upped for a second tour in Iraq of his own volition - to portray our fighting men and women as victims:

When Casey Sheehan grew up he fought in an unnecessary war that these men started.

He died in that war along with 4081 other Americans all of whom were once someone's child, father, mother, brother, or sister.

Enjoy your backyard barbeque burgers today gentlemen....

That's a fairly representative Memorial Day post from the radical left (to be fair, I did see one nihilist administration-basher who called a Memorial Day truce, here).

The evil neocons have allegedly raped the country, violently impressing our "innocent young" into the chains of the Bush/Cheney war machine.

There are many more of these as you cruise around the radical left blogosphere, but my stomach's starting to go sour.

My thanks go out once more to our veterans and their families, as well as to all the everyday citizens who choose to remember the fallen with the proper dignity and respect.